ABSTRACT
Symptoms may occur in the form of a way of acting, a style of thinking, a feeling held in order to avoid another less acceptable one. They may also occur in the form of physiological reactions—such as ulcers, sweating palms, and other disturbances of the autonomic system. A symptom and its psychological cause are really in an interdependent relationship, so that a change in one is accompanied by a change in the other. It is more efficient to work on the "cause", but there is good reason to believe that efforts to affect the symptom will usually affect its cause as well. This chapter discusses the implications of the conception of defense. It is immediately evident that a symptom, indeed any defense, is an outcome of a process which underlies it. Therefore, if one wants to bring about permanent cessation of the symptom, the most efficient thing he can do is to improve its underlying causes.
